This is the same blog post I have written dozens (?) of times. I am doing it now as a howl of despair (1) It will change nothing, except providing a fleeting spasm of catharsis. That’s all we have left, after the world historical defeat of the “left” (always a label that hid at least... Continue Reading →
Review: “The Little Green Book” by Vole #13Books
I am not buying or borrowing any more books until I read and review the 13 that I bought (for a grand total of £17.50) in London on Friday 10th October 2025. You can see the list and the rationale here. Title: The Little Green Book Author: Vole editors Richard Boston, Richard Holme and Richard... Continue Reading →
“The Birds” by Daphne Du Maurier. Horrific, and a solid 11 out of 10 #GBSS21/27
"The Birds” by Daphne Du Maurier Number 21 of 27 Great British Short Stories Premise: Birds Attack!! Review: This is flocking fantastic. How did I not read this as a 13 year old of a nervous disposition (answer - neither of my parents could point me to particularly good alternatives to Doctor Bloody Who and... Continue Reading →
Talk is cheap, mr climate “radical”
The moorhens and swans did well out of me today, as I fed them while walking along the canal. Real St Francis of Assisi stuff. Unfortunately, Pod(cast) did not reward me... I listened to a few episodes of a climate podcast that I had high hopes for. I won't name it (though obvs I could,... Continue Reading →
“Jumping the Gun” or “Kristallnacht 2.0 is postponed (not cancelled)”
There's a Meatloaf song that applies to the frothing anticipation of a pogrom postponed in the US in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. That song is "Jumping the Gun," rom the album Bad Attitude. It's not very good, but I loved it when I was 16 or 17. Feel like jumpin’ the gun,... Continue Reading →
“Good deeds” (not by me) and remembering/remembrance
As most (both?) of you who follow this site probably know, I do a climate histories site called "All Our Yesterdays." It's one of those "on this day x years ago x happened." I have learned a lot doing it - both about the histories of climate (you'd hope, eh?) but also some rudimentary data... Continue Reading →
Of WASPs and WESPs: power, perception and our baked-in doom
tl;dr - our societal systems of perception, especially of what is "normal" or "reliable" are dominated by white supremacism and patriarchy. This will not end well. Short one, because I should be feeding moorhens and doing a dozen good projects but I'm not. WASP stands for "White Anglo Saxon Protestant" - the "normal" for US... Continue Reading →
Of Sophisticated Hopium Ignoring Trajectories; an exhausted rant on Solnit, Morton, the Kleins etc
tl;dr - there is a market for "brightside-ing" that relies on ignoring the relevant trajectories and instead cherry-picking largely irrelevant factoids. Even otherwise worth-reading writers peddle it some of the time. Examples are given, "what is to be done" addressed. I'm not going to recap the scale and scope of the shit we are in.... Continue Reading →
We are taught deference, but (because?) They. Really. Are. Not. That. Bright.
I went to posh schools (a minor prep school in Hampshire and then the second 'best' school in Adelaide). At university I was on the fringe of the political set, who went on to State and Federal politics. Beyond that, I spent (i.e. wasted) a solid decade and a half interacting with the Manchester Labour... Continue Reading →
Brian Bilston’s poem “Today’s Climate Forecast”
Brian Bilston nailing it, July 10 this year.
marchudson.net 